Examples and limitations related therewith brought herein below are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the figures. An illustrative example of an implantable fixture is shown in the drawings. The fixture is preferably made of a biomechanical material such as, but not limited to, titanium or a titanium alloy. This fixture is designed to be implanted in bone of a patient and becomes the base, or root, for an addendum to be mounted thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,607 to Gerald A. Nimick discloses, inter Alia, “A dental implant anchor includes a body portion having a first external wall portion carrying one or more circumferential projections separated by circumferential grooves and, below, a second external wall portion carrying threads. The implant can include a head portion with a smooth external wall; a through-hole and an apical hole passing through the bottom of the implant; and internal structure for engaging a tool for inserting the implant in a passage formed in bone tissue. This internal structure can be in a top portion, or in an internal passage in the body portion of the implant.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,685 to Jorneus, Frillesas and Anders Boss, discloses, inter Alia, “A screw-shaped titanium anchoring member for permanent anchorage in bone tissue, specifically permanent anchorage of artificial teeth or tooth bridges in the jaw-bone, comprises at east one cavity located at the forward tip of the screw, the edges of the at least one cavity on the outer threaded cylindrical surface forming cutting tooth with cutting edge to provide self-tapping when the anchoring member is screwed into a bored hole in the bone tissue and the total volume of the at least one cavity being adapted to contain the scraped off bone tissue material. The anchoring member on the outer cylindrical surface of the cutting tooth, a short distance behind its cutting edge, is provided with a clearance surface defined on the outer surface of the anchoring member, which when seen in a cross-section through the cutting part of the anchoring member, is slightly beveled a short distance behind the threaded cutting edge.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,873 to Willi Schulte, Freimut Vizethum, Walter Hund Willi Schulte, Freimut Vizethum, and Walter Hund, discloses, inter Alia, “A dental implant including a post which can be anchored in the jawbone of a dental patient and a replacement tooth head fastenable to said post. The post has at its crown end a recess for mounting a replacement tooth. The outside surface of the post is stepped down in at least two, and preferably three or four, steps to an apical root end opposite said crown end. At least one of the steps carries an external screw thread, and of two adjacent steps, the step closer to the apical root end has a thread crest diameter which is not larger than the base diameter of the adjacent step situated closer to the crown end of the implant.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,812 to Charles D. Kownacki, Wade W. Prescott, and Rick A. Buss, discloses, inter Alia, “A self-tapping dental prosthetic implant has a blunt leading end, a tapered first section which has a uniform minor diameter and a uniformly increasing major diameter, a second section having uniform minor and major thread diameters, a third section with a uniform major thread diameter and a outwardly tapering minor diameter and fourth section which has a diameter larger than any other segment and a relatively low profile (that is, short axial length). A thread-cutting groove extends over a substantial portion of the threaded length of the implant. A stepped drill with a tip having a large included angle is used to drill a pilot hole permitting anchoring in the proximate and distal portions of cortical bone by the threaded implant.”
In some other implant fixture designs, specifically other self-tapping versions, a hole is bored into the bone at a diameter approximating the minor or base diameter of the thread. The top portion of the hole is counterbored or otherwise pre-enlarged to the major diameter of the implant fixture so that a relatively wide unthreaded portion of the implant can be placed into the enlarged hole with a precise fit in order to prevent any bacterial leakage (known as micro-leakage) into the surgical site. The fit between the implant fixture and hole is very important to the healing of and integration of the implant fixture into the bone tissue. This procedure, although somewhat effective, does not take advantage of the hard cortical bone layer that surrounds the perimeter of the mandible and maxilla as a medium in which to anchor.
Various other features, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent after a reading of the following detailed description thereof.
Thus, it may be advantageous to have a fixture that may offer enhanced osseointegration as well as better initial stability. Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention may become readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiment thereof, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.